Subject: Tabligh,
Religion, and Corona - See more at:
http://southasiajournal.net/tabligh-religion-and-corona/
The Editor,
South Asia Journal,
USA
Dear editor,
I was simply shocked to read the remarks of the
author Asif Ibrahim in your journal:
The touchstone of religion is
belief, the strength of science is doubt. Science questions and doubts
everything it arrives at. By this method, it evolved, discovered secrets of
nature and gave humans solutions to problems like plague, measles, small-pox,
etc. But, if you doubt a religious precept, or the Zeus himself, you are a
friend of Satan. Older the percept, and the temple, the closer you are to God,
and his mercy. Yuval Harari, writer of the celebrated book ‘Sapiens: A Brief
History of Humankind’, says ‘When a thousand people believe some made-up story
for a month–that is fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand
years–that is a religion, and we are admonished not to call it fake news in
order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful.’ Interestingly, most
communities moved away with time. They threw religious directives, and
scriptures out of their window. Muslims are the only community on the earth
shouldering the burden of religion in its pure form, and not surprisingly, they
are the most backward people on the earth.
- See more at: http://southasiajournal.net/tabligh-religion-and-corona/
- See more at: http://southasiajournal.net/tabligh-religion-and-corona/
One could surely understand the author's
disapproval of what the tabligh does or even their foolish decision to hold a
big gathering in Lahore last month for a number of reasons, esp. given that he
is a former Director of Indian Intelligence. Many of those positions in the
Indian service is denied to non-Hindus, esp. Muslims, unless the person has
been sufficiently 'Hinduized' or has been programmed to think more anti-Muslim
than a die-hard Hindu fanatic. Asif's piece has sufficient internal evidence,
notwithstanding the above quote I have cited from his article, to prove
his anti-religious, and surely anti-Islamic sentiments. Such sentiments are
typical of the so-called mukto-monas (free thinkers), agnostics and atheists
that are at war with religion, esp. with Islam in the post-9/11 days. Their
insecurity as a minority has robbed them of their empathy and critical
intelligence to look beyond the apparent and see things more objectively. They
fly with the wind like a dust and try to pollute the environment everywhere
they settle in.
In India, thanks to the barrage of fascist
Hindutvadi propaganda, the spread of the Covid-19 has been equated as Corona-jihad
very similar to how love affairs between Hindu girls with Muslim boys have been
termed Love-jihad. The ISRC,
the India scientist community, has strongly condemned such attempts within
India pointing out the lapse within the Central and Delhi governments, which
permitted a Tablighi gathering in Delhi on March 13. This event was permitted two
days after the Academy winning actor Tom
Hanks was reported to have contracted the virus in Australia.
It is hurtful to see someone with a
Muslim-sounding name to fall to that trap of Modi-surrogates trying to
communalize the pandemic. But nothing should surprise us any more in the
post-9/11 era when secular fundamentalists, let alone the anti-Muslim brigades
and bigots within the non-Muslim communities, saw it an opportune time to mount
savage attacks on Islam and Muslims from all the angles imaginable, even
borrowing hateful innuendos and diatribes from the medieval times. One can only
pity such irresponsible acts of those zealots that divide our world by breeding
hatred and intolerance. They seemed to have forgotten the time-honored karmic
theory - What you sow today, you will reap tomorrow.
I am also surprised to see reposting of Asif's
article in your journal, which if I recall from our exchange months ago that
you don't like to see. Explaining your reason for not posting my articles, you
wrote that I cross-post in a number of major Internet sites. I hope you were
fair and sincere in that selection process. Not only is this posted article
from Asif posted in other websites (like Easter Link) but many of your authors
have similar cross-postings. That is what one would call plain discrimination
or unfair practices and surely not a healthy sign in these days of Internet
superhighways. [Please, don't assume that my serious objection to the offensive
article of Asif has anything to do with your decision not to post my articles
(which are, by the grace of Allah, well received and read in some of the major
Internet sites around the globe).]
I am simply disappointed with your decision to
post Asif's article, which is an affront to organized religion, esp. Islam.
Such articles are an irritation and slap to your religious-minded readers who
are not extremists. They don’t have to be a follower of Tabligh to smell rotten
rats in Asif’s article.
As we all know now, governments around the globe
were caught flat-footed with
the Covid-19 since its emergence. Its latest strand emerged last year (that is
why it has been called Covid-19 and not Covid-20). But what did Modi's fascist government
do before the lockdown in India? It was guilty of ignoring the deadly pandemic,
and more interested in organizing and carrying out pogroms against Muslims in
Delhi.
On February 1, Modi was busy preparing for
Trump’s visit to India: Namaste Trump.
On Feb. 23, Delhi pogroms were triggered against
Muslims by his fascist party members.
On Feb. 24, the Namaste Trump event was held
while Muslims were slaughtered in Delhi by BJP’s hoodlums.
On March 4, the first government meeting was
held to discuss the Corona virus issue. On March 9, for the first time,
screening tests began at the airports in India. While the World Health
Organization declared Covid-19 a ‘pandemic’ on March 11, the BJP MLA (members
of the legislative assembly) were taken to resorts in a bus on March 11-12.
The BJP government declared on March 13 that it
is not a health emergency and in the following days it was busy in toppling the
Madhya Pradesh (MP) government.
On March 16, Modi convened a SAARC meeting to
discuss the pandemic.
On March 19, he addressed Indian people for the
first time and announced a 1-day Janata (public) curfew.
On March 20-21 BJP formed government in MP after
BJP legislators in that state celebrated the fall of the Kamal Nath government
on Friday with sweets and bursting of firecrackers at the party headquarters in
Bhopal.
As the virus problem spread, Modi extended the
Janata curfew on March 22 and banned all flights on March 25. The next day,
March 26, India was put on a lockdown until April 14.
In the USA, President Trump, too, was busy
campaigning and visiting India, and then haughtily stating that the infection
was not a danger, the risk being very little to Americans and could well be
managed, even touting the idea that the US doctors could help China combat the
pandemic, if asked.
On Feb. 7, he claimed that The coronavirus would
weaken “when we get into April, in the warmer weather—that has a very negative
effect on that, and that type of a virus.”
On Feb. 27, he falsely claimed that the outbreak
would be temporary: “It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle—it
will disappear.” When the country’s testing capabilities are severely limited,
he claimed on March 6, “Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. We—they’re
there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.”
Now, not only the damn-caring, arrogant leaders
like Trump and Modi but all the governments in our planet know better. They are
sounding alarm, preaching the wisdom of social distancing. As we know too well
if those snobs like Boris Johnson had learned to walk their talk rather than
mastering the art of finger-pointing and communalizing the nasty pandemic, we
would have contained or isolated the deadly pandemic much earlier. Insha-Allah!
Yes, I use here the Islamic phrase to say that this virus has forced us,
believers and non-believers alike, to be humble and kneel down and to pray and
wish for safety of us all.
It is simply criminal, if not irresponsible, to
now put the blame on a particular religious community or a segment therein for
the spread of the virus. Just like the governments, it is safe to assume that
the leaders and organizers of the Tabligh were caught unprepared. Had they
known better they would not have done the mistake of gathering in large
numbers.
May Allah protect us all. Ameen.
Enough said,
Habib Siddiqui
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